Scientists Believe They May Have Found Salt Water on Mars

At a press conference yesterday, scientists announced that they may be once
step closer to determining whether water -- an essential ingredient for
life -- exists on Mars. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has detected
"dark, finger-like features" appearing on Martian slopes in the planet's
southern hemisphere during late spring and summer and then fading in
winter when the weather turns colder. The most plausible explanation is
that these streaks are a "kind of salty water that is running on or just
below the Martian surface," The Washington Post's
Marc Kaufman explains. If that theory's confirmed, he adds, it "would
strongly support the widely held theory that the planet was once far
more wet and warm and offer "our best target yet for finding possible
life beyond Earth." NASA Administrator Charles Bolden added that the
discovery "reaffirms Mars as an important future destination for human
exploration" (which might be a boon for NASA now that its space shuttle
program has ended).